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Daniel 9:1-3, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Daniel 9:1-3
Jeremiah's Seventy Years Prompt Prayer
Jeremiah's seventy years become prayer, not arithmetic first
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, Daniel understands by books the number of the years whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
He sets his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. The movement is from Scripture about a named city's ruin to petition, not from a verse to a private countdown.
Desolation language is about Jerusalem's wound
Daniel reads a period tied to Jerusalem's desolations. The books in view are Jeremiah's words about seventy years, not a later end-of-world scheme.
This opening must not be used to blame later Jews for ancient covenant loss, to treat Jewish presence as a problem to be replaced, or to turn fasting into a technique that forces disclosure.
How this should shape us
When you read a promise or a limit in Scripture, answer it with prayer that tells the truth about ruin. Do not skip Jerusalem's name, and do not turn someone else's loss into inherited guilt or a chart.
Teach it back
Explain Daniel 9:1-3 in your own words. Include its movement, ancient horizon, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The prayer's compositional relation to the vision, identity of both anointed figures, prince and covenant, division of the weeks, meaning of the final half-week, and Christian or futurist extension remain disputed. No single arithmetic should be presented as explicit and uncontested.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Daniel 9:1-3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic wording, morphology, language boundary, names, repeated roots, clauses, and lexical controls.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Dan.xml, 9:1-3; Hebrew 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13, Aramaic 2:4b–7:28
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew-Aramaic, textual, historical, translation, chronology, angelic-language, and duration notes.
NET Bible Daniel PDF, printed pp. 1662–1664, translation and translator notes on 9:1-3
Supports: Bilingual form, genres, composition, imperial settings, Antiochus IV, four kingdoms, seventy weeks, resurrection, and major critical alternatives.
P. R. Davies, 'Daniel,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 563–571; chapter-level discussion applied to 9:1-3
Supports: Two major Greek editions, substantial chapters 4–6 differences, numbering, wording, order, and additions outside the pinned KJV mapping.
McLay, NETS Daniel, introduction printed pp. 991–994 and parallel Old Greek/Theodotion translation pp. 995–1025; 9:1-3
Supports: One transparent reconstruction of the seventy weeks and evidence for why starts, segments, overlaps, and endpoints remain disputed.
Athas, 'In Search of the Seventy Weeks,' JHS 9.2 (2009), pp. 1–20; Jeremiah frame, chronology proposals, Onias III, Antiochus IV, and transmission discussion applied to 9:1-3
Supports: Historically situated reception diversity and safeguards against Christian triumphalism, antisemitism, and collapsing later readings into the first horizon.
Spurling, 'Interpretations of Daniel 12:1,' JSQ 25.3 (2018), pp. 297–319; Daniel 12:1 and selected late-antique Jewish-Christian receptions applied to 9:1-3
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Daniel 9:1-3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew aramaic text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Daniel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic wording, morphology, language boundary, names, repeated roots, clauses, and lexical controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Dan.xml, 9:1-3; Hebrew 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13, Aramaic 2:4b–7:28
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Daniel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew-Aramaic, textual, historical, translation, chronology, angelic-language, and duration notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Daniel PDF, printed pp. 1662–1664, translation and translator notes on 9:1-3
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Daniel
Philip R. Davies
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Bilingual form, genres, composition, imperial settings, Antiochus IV, four kingdoms, seventy weeks, resurrection, and major critical alternatives.
Exact location: P. R. Davies, 'Daniel,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 563–571; chapter-level discussion applied to 9:1-3
Open source ↗greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Daniel
R. Timothy McLay
Oxford University Press for the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 2009, electronic corrections through 2014
Supports: Two major Greek editions, substantial chapters 4–6 differences, numbering, wording, order, and additions outside the pinned KJV mapping.
Exact location: McLay, NETS Daniel, introduction printed pp. 991–994 and parallel Old Greek/Theodotion translation pp. 995–1025; 9:1-3
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
In Search of the Seventy 'Weeks' of Daniel 9
George Athas
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9, article 2, 2009
Supports: One transparent reconstruction of the seventy weeks and evidence for why starts, segments, overlaps, and endpoints remain disputed.
Exact location: Athas, 'In Search of the Seventy Weeks,' JHS 9.2 (2009), pp. 1–20; Jeremiah frame, chronology proposals, Onias III, Antiochus IV, and transmission discussion applied to 9:1-3
Open source ↗peer reviewed reception history article
Interpretations of Daniel 12:1 and Perceptions of the Christian 'Other'
Helen Spurling
Jewish Studies Quarterly 25.3, 2018
Supports: Historically situated reception diversity and safeguards against Christian triumphalism, antisemitism, and collapsing later readings into the first horizon.
Exact location: Spurling, 'Interpretations of Daniel 12:1,' JSQ 25.3 (2018), pp. 297–319; Daniel 12:1 and selected late-antique Jewish-Christian receptions applied to 9:1-3
Open source ↗